For many photographers, deserts are exotic destinations to tick off a bucket list. But for me, they’ve always been part of everyday life.
I’ve spent most of my life in the American Southwest, with the Mojave Desert right on my doorstep. Over the years, iconic locations such as Death Valley and White Sands have shaped not only the photographs I make, but the way I see and experience the landscape itself.
My first visit to Death Valley came in 2009. At the time, I was still very new to photography. I didn’t understand light, I didn’t understand composition, and I certainly didn’t appreciate just how remarkable the landscape was. In fact, I’d always assumed Death Valley was much farther from home than it actually was.
Standing there for the first time was completely mind-blowing. You see this otherworldly landscape and you’re overwhelmed by what you’re looking at. It’s difficult to describe just how exciting it is to discover something so beautiful that you never even knew existed.
What I didn’t realise at the time was that it would take years to make the photographs I had in my head. The images I create today are the result of countless return visits, a lot of trial and error, and a gradual understanding of how light shapes the landscape. Learning to read that light—and respond to it—has been one of the most important parts of my journey as a photographer.
The Diversity of the Desert Landscape
What photographers broadly call “the desert” is actually a diverse collection of distinct environments. The deserts of California are completely different from those in Arizona. The mountains are different, the badlands are different, and even the vegetation changes dramatically. While many people think only of dunes, the reality includes sandstone slot canyons, cottonwood groves, winding rivers and alpine landscapes. There’s so much variety that I’ve known photographers who stopped travelling internationally altogether because there’s just so much here to photograph.
What Makes Desert Photography Unique?
Over the years, I’ve come to approach all subjects in the same way, whether I’m photographing the desert or the Oregon coastline. As a you mature as a photographer, you begin to realise that the underlying concepts don’t really change. In the desert, a winding coastline is replaced by dune ridges, and a river valley finds its parallel in the network of mud cracks on a playa.
By slowing down and applying universal compositional principles—leading lines, repeating patterns, shape, balance and separation—I’ve found that the desert is never empty. The landscape may look simple at first glance, but the more time you spend with it, the more structure, detail and opportunity you begin to see.
Let the light dictate the composition
More than anything else, I let the light dictate what I photograph. Rather than arriving with a fixed idea of what I want to shoot, I pay attention to what the light is doing to the landscape and respond to that.
Some days it leads me towards grand scenes; other days it’s the smaller details that catch my eye. Every time you go out, the light is different, which means the photographs are different too.
That’s something I encourage photographers to embrace on workshops. It’s easy to become fixated on a composition you’ve seen online, but the best photographs often come from paying attention to what’s happening in front of you. If the light isn’t working for the wider scene, switch gears and look for the intimate details instead.
Why I rarely include people for scale
Another approach that shapes much of my work is the way I think about scale. Many photographers add a person to the frame to show just how large a landscape is. I often do the opposite.
If I put a person in the scene, you instantly know how big everything is. By leaving that detail out, I can create a little more ambiguity and let the viewer’s mind wander. Is it a close-up? Is it an aerial photograph? Is that mud crack six inches across or six feet across? You don’t really know.
I like that uncertainty because it encourages people to spend more time with the image. Instead of taking a quick glance and moving on, they start exploring the details and asking questions. For me, that sense of mystery is often more powerful than showing the scale outright.
Death Valley Photography Tips
Why Death Valley is unlike anywhere else
Death Valley is a microcosm of desert diversity, containing vast salt flats, sand dunes, badlands, and even high-elevation forests. You can go from the lowest point at Badwater, which is more than 200 feet below sea level, up to 8,000 feet above sea level within a couple of hours. This shift in elevation transforms the scenery from stark, barren basins to lush areas with trees, brush, and snow-capped peaks. A lot of my own work has taken off just by having access to so much variety within close proximity to my home.
How to Photograph Death Valley's Salt Polygons
If you’re planning to photograph Death Valley’s famous salt polygons, it’s important to remember that they’re not a permanent feature of the landscape. They’re not there all the time. When water enters Badwater Basin, it dissolves the polygons, and it can take two or three years for them to recover their intricate geometric patterns. That’s something many people don’t realise until they visit.
When conditions do align, I usually advocate for a wide-angle lens and a knee-to-thigh-height perspective. From that height, you retain the expansive look of the scene and the strong leading lines that draw the viewer into the image. If you go too low, you kill that perspective and lose that railroad-track feeling of the lines stretching out into the distance.
Breaking Down a Death Valley Composition
The playa you see here no longer exists in this form. It was there for many years, and the mud cracks were enormous—almost like cinder blocks. Some were probably six inches thick, with multiple layers running between them. Capturing a scene like this is often about being there when the conditions align, because the desert is forever changing.
Swipe up and down to see David’s approach to the scene
What first caught my eye was the dappled light moving across the mountain range in the background, along with the dramatic sky and the texture in the clouds above. We photographed this in early spring, with a storm passing through the area, and simply got lucky with the conditions.
Compositionally, what drew me in were the triangles within the scene. I like to look for triangles in wide landscapes because they create natural leading lines that point directly towards the light. In this image, the pattern repeats again and again. You have a small triangle, then a larger one, then another framing those shapes, and the pattern continues all the way back into the distance.
I didn’t go super low with the camera. I tend to work around knee-to-thigh height because it helps maintain that expansive look across the playa. If you go too low, you lose that sense of depth and the railroad-track feeling of the lines stretching into the distance. I think that’s one of the reasons this composition works so well. The foreground is strong, the light connects the scene together, and the textured sky complements everything else without distracting from it.
When to visit Death Valley
If you’re planning a photography trip to Death Valley, my recommendation is pretty straightforward: stay away from the summer. From mid-May through October, the heat can be intense. For most photographers, late October through April is the sweet spot, with comfortable temperatures and some of the best conditions of the year.
Winter is particularly rewarding. The light stays low throughout the day, storms often move through the valley, and the landscape takes on a much moodier, more dramatic character. Snow isn’t uncommon in the higher elevations, while the lower elevations benefit from soft light and changing weather.
That said, some of my favourite dune photographs were made in April and May. That’s when the winds begin to pick up, and I actually love those conditions. All that blowing sand creates atmosphere, depth and mystery. It makes the landscape feel far more dynamic than it does on a calm day. It may be a little warmer by then, but the trade-off is that the wind can transform an ordinary dune scene into something much more compelling.
How to Photograph White Sands National Park
In contrast to the vast extremes of Death Valley, White Sands National Park is a landscape of subtlety. My own relationship with this place goes back to childhood. My parents were stationed at Holloman Air Force Base, right next to White Sands, and we used to visit all the time. Back then, it was simply a giant playground. The sand was soft and powdery, and we’d spend hours sliding down the dunes.
A different kind of desert
Returning as a photographer, I realised just how different White Sands is from other desert landscapes. Covering an area nearly twice the size of Las Vegas, the dunes are made of gypsum rather than traditional sand, giving them a bright, almost luminous appearance. They’re also flatter and less dramatic than the dunes you’ll find in places like Death Valley, which presents a different set of compositional challenges.
Composition tips for White Sands
For me, White Sands works best when approached with a minimalist mindset. Because the dunes are so simple, you have to be far more intentional about composition. Isolated yucca trees, patches of grass, overlapping layers and subtle curves all become important tools for creating depth and structure within the frame. Rather than searching for an epic landscape, I find myself looking for simplicity, isolation and small details within the scene.
Exposure tips for White Sands
Exposure is equally important. The bright gypsum reflects light in much the same way as snow, and the dunes often take on a subtle blue cast before sunrise and after sunset. Cameras can easily exaggerate that blue, so it’s important to remember what you actually saw rather than blindly trusting the LCD. A proper white balance, careful exposure and a gentle hand in post-processing go a long way here.
Above all, pay attention to the histogram—particularly the blue channel. It’s one of the most common mistakes I see photographers make at White Sands. Too often, the colour is pushed too far, and the final image loses the subtle quality that makes the landscape so unique.
Practical Field Guide: Lessons from the Desert
Managing color in desert photography
One of the biggest mistakes I see isn’t necessarily when photographers are capturing the scene but it’s when they start post-processing. Desert landscapes are full of earth tones: browns, yellows, golds, reds and magentas. Add warm sunlight into the mix and those colours can get out of hand very quickly.
The landscape will naturally have a colour cast, but the key is managing it. Too much warmth can reduce colour separation, making the image feel flat. By controlling those colour casts, you create more separation, more depth and ultimately a more dynamic image.
One simple technique I always recommend is cycling through your white balance settings in the field. Rather than leaving everything on Auto, take a moment to see which setting best matches what you’re actually seeing. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but getting closer in-camera makes post-processing much easier later on.
Stay longer than you think you should
I don’t think there’s ever such a thing as getting there too early or leaving too late. More often than not, it’s the time in between that photographers overlook. Even 45 minutes to an hour after sunrise can offer fantastic opportunities, especially in the dunes. As the sun climbs a little higher, you begin to get stronger side-light, longer shadows and more pronounced light-and-shadow play across the landscape.
It’s also the perfect time to explore black-and-white or infrared photography. The desert lends itself beautifully to both, and some of my favourite images have been made well after many photographers would have packed up and headed home. As an added bonus, you don’t necessarily have to get up quite as early—you can probably sleep in for another hour!
Embrace the wind
When it comes to photographing dunes, some of the best conditions are the ones people try to avoid.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve watched photographers squint into the wind and think, “Oh no.” Then they get out there and end up having an amazing time. Blowing sand creates atmosphere, depth and mystery. It transforms an ordinary dune scene into something far more dynamic.
Most modern camera gear is weather-sealed and can handle these conditions surprisingly well. My approach is simple: carry two camera bodies—one with a long lens and one with a mid-range or wide-angle lens—and avoid changing lenses in the field when the sand is flying.
Honestly, you’ll probably do more cleaning on yourself than you will on your camera gear. You’ll come back with sand in your hair, ears, nose, eyes, mouth and teeth. But the images are usually worth it.
The Most Important Lesson: Patience
If there’s one thing the desert has taught me, it’s patience.
For me, patience is about keeping an open mind. It’s about slowing down, paying attention to the light and being thoughtful about your compositions. It takes time to develop that way of seeing. The compositions are there, but sometimes it takes a while to find your rhythm and recognise them.
That’s especially true in the American Southwest, where there’s often far more to a landscape than first meets the eye. Some days it’s the sweeping forms of a dune field that hold your attention; on others, it’s a winding river, a grove of cottonwoods, the intricate textures of a badland or the patterns and colours of an alpine landscape high above the desert floor. The more time you spend exploring, the more you realise just how much there is to see.
My advice to anyone planning their first desert photography trip is simple: keep an open mind, pay attention to the light and be patient. Learn to look at the landscape differently. Once you do, you’ll discover that the desert is anything but empty.
If this story inspired you to explore the deserts of the American Southwest, consider joining David Thompson in the field. Whether you’re drawn to the sculpted gypsum dunes of White Sands or the vast landscapes of Death Valley, these workshops are designed to help you develop your photographic vision while experiencing some of the most remarkable desert environments in North America.
